2.11.2012

Eleven : your own fairytale- Jessi

Today we have a post from one of my best friends, Jessi!!

A little background, Jessi and I met in our sorority. We served as officers together and friendship grew from there. We were in the same major together last semester and then Jessi found her true passion in another major and I miss having all of my classes with her. She sometimes has to parallel park for me. We are birthday twins (her birthday is the 19th, mine is the 20th...I don't know why we say we're birthday twins, but we are) and we have laughed until we have cried over some of the dumbest things, but I look back at those times and smile. I am so grateful for her friendship and for the long chats we have had about life. I am grateful that these two best friends have found love in their lives and it has been so fun for me to watch them fall in love with two wonderful men. I am so thrilled about Jessi and her fiance getting married this summer and I know you will love this post [and her blog]!!

Enjoy!!

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To start off, I need to give a big thanks to Catherine for letting me be a part of this. What a cool experience huh? I sure think so! I’ve thought a lot about what I would want to share over the past few weeks and I’ve literally come up with a million things, but I think I’ve finally narrowed it down to one. That is, what love means to me and what I’ve learned about it over the past few years of my life.

Just a little background, I am currently engaged to my best friend and the love of my life and we are about to begin the best journey of our lives on June 14th. Even with that said, I am in no means an expert on the subject of love, but I will write from the heart and a little about my experiences with it. I hope that you can take something from it.

I believe there’s a bit of a helpless romantic in all of us, especially in girls. We are raised to believe that love is supposed to be like what we see in movies or read about in books. If it’s not, we search for something better or something that we feel will be more like those stories we’ve lost ourselves in, or the cute and tender moments we’ve cried with our girlfriends over as we’ve watched the “perfect” love story portrayed on the big screen.

The truth of it all is that love is nothing like what’s portrayed on the big screen. It’s even better. The most amazing part of it is that each of you have your own love story waiting to unfold before you. The question is, are you willing to trust that it’s out there? To not give up until you find it? To find out for yourself that your own love story is better than that of any fairytale. It is something that is so uniquely and beautifully your own-- something that is too deep and too powerful for the feelings to even come close to being accurately portrayed in any movie or book.

There may of course be the times where you think you’ve found true love; the kind where he seems to be everything you’ve ever hoped and dreamed of, the kind where you can picture your future with him so perfectly. Over time however, you find that the future you saw with him is slowly but surely fading out of sight. You may fight or he may fight to keep it together for some fleeting moment-- perhaps you will both fight; and for a short time that fighting will keep you together. You convince yourself that things are alright, that they will somehow get better, yet deep down you sense it, something is whispering—warning you that things are far from alright. And then it happens. He stops fighting, and you find your heart aching, wondering why and how you ever allowed yourself to let down your guard and let this hurt in. Those words of flattery he once spoke to you lie in shattered pieces scattered beneath you. Weeks, perhaps months will pass, but little by little you will find yourself regaining that strength you so desperately need. You put up a wall, swearing to never let anyone get close enough to hurt you like that again, and then one day, he will walk into your life silently and swiftly. Perhaps he has been in your life all along. However it happens, he will come and the pieces will fall perfectly into place. He will begin to heal your broken heart, he will pick up the pieces you thought would surely be shattered forever. You will be willing to trust again. You will realize that hindsight is a beautiful gift and you will be able to look back and why things happened the way that they did. You will see how everything fell perfectly into place and you will see all that you learned along the way and the many ways in which you grew as a result of all that you experienced.

So what is true love then? True love is finding that someone whowill love you unconditionally and treat you right. Someone who you can share all your hopes and dreams with and they will not squander them, but push you to go for them, to become what you've always wanted to be...to never settle. Someone who will stay up late with you and tell you time and time again how beautiful you are and how lucky he is to have you. Someone who knows your strengths and your weaknesses and is willing to look past your bad days because to put it simply, he loves you enough to do that. Someone who has seen you at your worst and loves you all the more for it. Someone who gives you that look that melts you into his arms. Someone who kisses your forehead and tells you that you are the most beautiful woman in the world and the love of his life. Someone who leaves a note on your car just to remind you what you mean to him. Someone who smiles that one and only uniquely-his smile. Someone who you find yourself running into his arms as he lifts you up and twirls you around. Someone who you find yourself laughing for hours with after whipped cream fights in the kitchen. Someone who forgives and forgets. Someone who tells you every day that he loves you and then shows it by his actions. Someone who promises to always put you first, to protect you, and provide for you. Someone who makes you laugh until your stomach hurts and tears roll down your cheeks. Someone who you can pull funny faces with and laugh together about how ridiculous you each look. Someone who always holds your hand. Someone who wants everyone to know that you are his. Someone who will laugh at your stupid comments. Someone who will hold you when you cry. Someone who will cuddle up on the couch and watch your favorite chick flick with you. Someone who will make you not feel quite as dumb when you read the wrong directions and burn an entire batch of cookies. Someone who will bring you flowers when you've had a rough day or just because they want to do something nice for you. Someone who will bring out the best in you. Someone who will make you want to become a better person each day of your life. Someone who you will wake up next to in the morning and think to yourself "how did i get so lucky?". Someone who will fight for you because you mean everything to him.

He will fight. And you will fight. Because you can't even imagine going through life without the other one by your side.

And together you will embark on a journey greater than that of any fairytale.

That’s what love is. And I feel so blessed to have found it and to have such an incredible man in my life.

Never give up. Never stop fighting for what you want most. Because it's out there. He's out there. And one day, little by little, you will feel that incredible feeling of knowing you can't go through life without having him by your side.